MOSCOW, Nov 29 (Reuters) – A Russian court ruled on Thursday
that video footage of the Pussy Riot punk group protesting
against President Vladimir Putin in a church was “extremist” and
should be removed from websites.

The demonstration last February offended many Russian
Orthodox Christians. But Putin has been criticised by U.S. and
European leaders over what they saw as disproportionate jail
sentences imposed on three Pussy Riot members. Their trial was
also seen by Putin’s critics as part of a clampdown on dissent.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Three prison guards have been detained for beating up an inmate in a case that highlights Russia’s failure to stamp out brutality by law enforcement officers more than a decade after Vladimir Putin rose to power.

Russia’s prison authority took action after video footage appeared on the Internet showing men in uniform hitting and kicking a prisoner who has his hands tied behind his back and his trousers down.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, speaking before a visit to Paris on Monday, criticized France’s support for the Syrian opposition and accused European Union leaders of indecisiveness in dealing with the region’s economic crisis.

France became the first European power to recognize Syria’s new opposition coalition as the sole representative of its people and said on November 13 it would look into arming rebels against President Bashar al-Assad once they formed a government.

PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has suspended its bid for a permit to build an Orthodox church with five domes on the Seine riverbank in Paris, the French government said, after the mayor of the world’s most visited city labeled the project a showy eyesore.

Ahead of a Paris visit next week by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, France’s culture and foreign ministries said in a joint statement that Moscow had agreed to review the plan, which is close to President Vladimir Putin’s heart.

MOSCOW, Nov 21 (Reuters) – Russia’s energy-based economy
will take a serious blow from membership of the WTO coupled with
a global slowdown, President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday,
singling out the most vulnerable sectors of the $1.9 trillion
economy.

Higher unemployment and budget revenue shortfalls were
likely to result from moves to cut some import duties to comply
with WTO rules, Putin said, making domestically produced goods
less attractive to cash-strapped consumers and businesses.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Russia’s Gazprom
committed more than $38 billion to develop an East
Siberian gas field and build a pipeline to the Pacific port of
Vladivostok to lessen its reliance on exports to Europe and
develop Asian markets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Gazprom, the
country’s pipeline gas export monopoly, to forge close ties with
fast-growing Asia Pacific consumers, such as China and Japan,
to offset sagging demand in Europe.
On Monday, Gazprom’s Chief Executive Alexei Miller told
Putin the company would invest 770 billion roubles ($24.5
billion) to build the 3,200 km (2,000 mile) pipeline from the
East Siberian Chayanda deposit to Vladivostok.
He said 430 billion roubles ($13.7 billion) would be
invested in development of the field.
“We can create another exporting centre oriented to
Asia-Pacific region,” Putin said adding that the East Siberian
region has huge gas resources.
Gazprom, in partnership with Japanese companies, plans to
build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Vladivostok, which
may come on stream by 2020 with production of between 10 million
and 20 million tonnes.
Miller said the pipeline was expected to connect Vladivostok
in 2017 with the field, which has estimated resources of 1.3
trillion cubic metres of gas.
“In the nearest future, we are able to create gas exporting
capacity comparable to that of European gas exports,” Miller
said.
Gazprom’s gas exports to Europe, where it covers a quarter
of gas needs, are expected to fall this year from the 150
billion cubic metres it shipped in 2011.
Russia, the world’s second-largest gas producer after the
United States, has a sole LNG-producing plant, Gazprom-led
Sakhalin-2 project, which produces 10 million tonnes of the
froze gas a year.
Gazprom’s another LNG project, designed on the basis of
Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea, has been postponed due to
costs overrun.

Gazprom will also develop other East Siberian fields, such
as Kovykta, to feed the eastern route.
Russia has long eyed pipeline gas exports to China, the
world’s top energy user, but the two neighbours have been unable
to agree on pricing, funding and routes.
There has also been delay in decision-making in China ahead
of a once-in-a-decade change of political leadership.
Russia has planned to ship as much as 68 billion cubic
metres of gas to China.
Miller told reporters that there is a “positive dynamic” in
China talks.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Three prominent opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin were detained at a protest in central Moscow on Saturday that followed the first meeting of a new opposition body elected in an online vote.

Police arrested politicians Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin and Sergei Udaltsov as they tried to take part in a march of several dozen opposition supporters after the inaugural session of the newly-formed Coordination Council.

MOSCOW/MINSK (Reuters) – A summit of leaders of ex-Soviet states scheduled for the start of November has been postponed, an official said on Friday, amid talk that Russian President Vladimir Putin is suffering from back trouble.

The Executive Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose group created as the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, said earlier this month the summit was due to take place in Turkmenistan on November 2.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Russian President
Vladimir Putin has “mixed feelings” about Rosneft’s
alliance with BP after the state oil major announced a
$55 billion takeover of Anglo-Russian TNK-BP.

Putin said on Thursday that, although the deal ran counter
to efforts to constrain the state’s role in the Russian economy,
he backed it because of a shareholder conflict between BP and
the billionaire co-owners of Russia’s No.3 oil firm.